Dead Trees, Part 2

So it is yesterday evening  and I'm looking at this 12' tree across my driveway.  I can't get the car out directly.  The tree still has intact 3" roots in the ground.  But if I can cut it it 3 places it is probably small enough parts to at least drag off the driveway.  I tried the electric chain saw.  It was like using a butter knife.  

I forgot to take a picture...

So I went back inside see if I had a new blade.  I did, but I just didn't feel up to all the replacement adjustment and I didn't really have to drive anywhere the next day.  So I decided to tackle that in the morning.

I considered using the car to haul it off the driveway.  It would have meant backing out and then pushing between the tree and a shrub on a soggy lawn, but I can repair lawn damage, so I was getting my strongest rope and putting the trailer hitch on the Forester.  

As I was collecting that stuff, I noticed my basement cell phone was blinking.  That means a VM.  Good neighbors Deb and John asked if I was OK.  Which, since I wasn't under the tree, meant "did I need some help".  Yes I did!

So I called.  Basically, to say I could probably get the tree cut apart when I replaced the chain saw blade, but if they could help me swivel the tree off the driveway "I sure would appreciate it".

I should explain that I'm not very good at asking for help.  I'm helpful when asked, but I've lived alone so long, I expect to solve problems on my own.  That's not a good thing, but it is a habit of many years just doing everything myself having little other choice.  Contractors when necessary and I hate it.  But I'm not 30 anymore.  Or 50.  Age is catching up with me.  

Deb and John are very interesting people.  Deb works in conflict management online and is strongly dedicated to helping others.  When we talk as neighbors, she will not leave without a hug.  John seems to be an original "Jack Of All Trades".  He knows enough about "everything" and he has "stuff.  And he matches up with Deb perfectly.  He seems to like being the "ultimate helpful guy".  He has stuff that amazes me.

How did I get so lucky to have them for neighbors?

So, I called them asking for just enough help to drag the tree off the driveway.  Well, that wasn't enough for them!  They looked at the fallen tree, decided the roots had to be cut but he had a good chain saw to cut the trunk off near the ground.  I wasn't sure how much good that was going to do.  But he went back to the house and returned with a chain saw and his ATV.

I knew he had one, but I didn't realize how RUGGED those things were up close.  He cut the trunk from the stump and said he would haul the tree into the woods next to the house.  The tree was heavy, but he said it wouldn't be a problem.  He was right.

After he chain-sawed the trunk loose he brought out a 1" thick rope.  I need one that strong...  Maybe even a chain.  In fact, I want a couple of heavy-duty pulleys, but that is a diffent subject.

I'm not inept.  I was a Boy Scout for 6 years and camped out for 6 weeks once.  I know knots, can cook over an open fire, and I build a dining table in camp out of saplings cuttings once, lashed with vines.

His rope had a loop at one end and was melted (for unfraying) at the other (I do the same).  I asked John if he wanted the loop the ATV end or round the trunk.  And whether he wanted a timberline knot on the trunk.  He said the loop around the trunk was fine.  He tied a perfect double clove knot to his ATV.

I did mention that the sharp edge of that was cutting the rope  and that the round trailer hitch would be easier on it.  He changed it.

And AWAY went the tree!   I don't know how you can drag a 10" wide tree through heavy woods, but HE did, LOL!  And then he went and helped a different neighbor with a smaller one.  

Saved me at least 4 hours of work.  I HAVE to make a banana cake for them...  And they are starting their first garden (in deer territory) and want to protect it.  I know THAT stuff.  So maybe I can repay their help in that way.

Comments About That Unusually Helpful AOL Tech Person

Comments came up about how unusually helpful the AOL tech was and that she didn't want company recognition...

I had dealt with at least 6 AOL techs over the last couple months.  I'm not saying they weren't helpful to the degree required for their jobs.  But if there was something I couldn't do or understand, they lost patience quickly.  So they didn't go out of their way to help.  They were following AOL rules.  One is paying $5 per month per email account that they could verify.  Another was that I had to know the previous passwords which were on the dead Mac Mini.  They pretty much just tried to get me off the phone to get to the next customer.

I should mention that the previous ones might have had trouble because I didn't have a 2nd phone for sending a code to, or call waiting set up.  I did contact my service provider (Verizon) to set that up.  It just took a button click on My Account and then discovering there was a button on my phone labeled "call waiting'!  Well, you don't see what you aren't looking for...

When I talked to this latest one, it was obvious she was not so concerned with AOL rules.  She didn't ask if I had an paid account for each email address.  She asked if I had passwords, but when I said I didn't (and explained why) she said "then we will set of new ones".  She was patient after asking questions that I didn't fully understand.  She answered some questions she didn't have to bother answering.

An example was "what is the difference between POP and IMAP accounts"?  She explained that POP was easier for AOL but did not allow recovery of email files while IMAP took a little more work, but allowed recoveries.  When I mentioned that my working email account was POP, she said "well let's fix that first".   And she did.

She was on "remote control" over my computer by then.  She explained what she was doing at each step.  After changing my primary email account from POP to IMAP we went to the marksmews email.  She didn't ask if I had a monthly payment account, she just went about setting it up as IMAP.  To do so, she generated a master password on her end and told me to enter a password of my own afterwards to change it.  And she specifically said at all such times that she had turned off her vieing so that she couldn't see my new password. 

OK, that might have been untrue, but I was trusting her.  I think she was being honest.  Besides, I'm sure anyone at AOL could see my passwords if they wanted to.

So she had my cavebear email changed to the safer IMAP format and the marksmews email set up the same way.  She asked if I needed further assistance.  I mentioned a 3rd email accounnt.  When she asked why have 3 accounts, I explained it was one general email and one each for 2 blogs (cats and gardening) just to keep them separate.

She laughed and said she admired organized computer files.  I didn't mention that I keep so many folders of various kinds that I used to drive the computer guys nuts at work when they had to solve a problem.  They make sense to me and that is all that matters.

So she went about setting up my yardenman email (gardening) as Imap and went through the process of creating a temporary new master password at her end *sending a temporay code to my call-waiting) and then going off-viewing while I created a new one for myself.

All in all, it was a wonderful experience.  I have never in my life had a better experience with a computer company tech.  So why did she decline to let me thank AOL on her behalf? 

Well, during our hour-long chat, I mentioned that she was unusually helpful and did she really enjoy doing this?  OK, I would expect any company agent to express a positive attitude whether they actually enjoyed their job or not.

She seemed actually happy to help people get problems fixed and to be the one to fix them.  So parts of being happy at what you do are hard to disguise.  She seemed to REALLY enjoy what she was doing.

I get that.  When I visit my favorite gardening forum, the first thread I go to is the "Questions" thread.  Some guys love cars, some like sports, I was gardening as a preteen.  So it has been 60 years...  I love to answer gardening questions!  I get positive pleasure from helping other people garden well. 

So, apparently, the AOL tech rep I spoke to feels the same way about computers.  I think that she knows that she is breaking AOL rules by helping people without asking for payment programs or pushing add-on "pay-for" services.  It just gives her pleasure to help others with her expertise.

An aside...  The internet has been the greatest opportunity for people to share their individual knowledge since the invention of the mass-printed book.  Before the printing press (invented in symbol-driven China, but much more applicable to European letter systems), scholars had to write individual letters to the few others they knew about things they had discovered (expensive, slow, and uncertain of delivery).  After the printing press, scholars could write whole books available to all who could buy one (it still wasn't cheap).  But 1,000 books reached more people than a dozen short letters.

With the internet, we can reach a Billion people if they are interested and nearly for free.  So sending answers to questions (whether computer, gardening, cooking, etc) into the internet is basically "books cubed".

The AOL tech woman is one of those.